Three in ten Americans read digital books. Whether they’re accessing online textbooks or checking out the latest bestselling e-book from the public library, the majority of these readers are subject to both the greed of Big Publishing and the priorities of Big Tech. In fact, Amazon’s Kindle held 72% of the e-reader market in 2022. And if there’s one thing we know about Big Tech companies like Amazon, their real product isn’t the book. It’s the user data. READ MORE...
Saturday, December 16
Friday, December 15
Our Christmas Spirit
WHAT GIVES???
Has the Christmas Holiday lost its magic here in the good ole US of A?
Is there so much bullshit going on in the world that none of us feel like celebrating the holiday?
Have we lost our religious beliefs?
Many colleges and universities no longer call it the Christmas Holidays... they call it something else, like Winter Break or something... I am sure that grades K-12 don't refer to it as Christmas either. So, in the minds of our students it is just a few days off from school and studies.
I remember when I was in college, all of our end of the semester exams took place when we got back from the holidays, so we had to take our books home and study, so it wasn't much of a holiday.
There are only 10 days left until Christmas Day... and, for many of us, this means going to parties, getting shit-faced drunk, over-eating, displaying asinine behavior around our families, arguments at dinner, and opening presents... for many of us, illegal drugs will also figure prominently into this holiday as well.
I think for many of us, we have shifted the focus away from religion for some reason. I hesitate to try to label the problem because it varies with each person. For me, I just don't believe the Bible or the sermons I heard in Church. However, I do believe in a superior being and I believe that something or someone created the universe because something from nothing is just not possible or logical.
I remember being told by numerous ministers that Jesus said the following: MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD... now, what exactly does that mean? I see the word WORLD and think EARTH so his kingdom is not of earth. So, where is it?
- Does his kingdom exist in our solar system?
- Does his kingdom exist in our Milky Way Galaxy?
- Does his kingdom exist in another Galaxy?
- Does his kingdom exist in another Dimension?
Ministers will tell you his kingdom is in Heaven, but no one knows where Heaven is location. Nor do they know exactly where Hell is located either?
For me that's a BIG PROBLEM...
Chinese Rush for Intelligentized Warfare Alarms Pentagon
The U.S. Department of Defense has warned that China’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives have seen heavy integration with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), raising concerns of a possible AI arms race.
"The size, scope and sophistication of Chinese military modernization programs is breathtaking," James Anderson, who served as the deputy undersecretary of defense during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital. "The report makes clear that Beijing remains hellbent on developing a world-class military force, despite its recent economic slowdown."
The annual Pentagon report on the Military and Security Developments involving the People’s Republic of China argues in the preface that China remains "the" pacing challenge for the Department of Defense as Beijing seeks "national rejuvenation" by 2049 – the centenary anniversary for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). READ MORE...
Better Off Today than in 2020?
Biden blames all his problems on Trump because if Trump had not done what he did then Biden would not have had to do what he did. Somehow that logic does not make sense to me, but that is what his administration is saying.
Granted, food prices have gone up and come down a little and gas prices have gone up and come down a little. When we go out to a restaurant for brunch or dinner, we are paying $20 more than we used to pay.
But, we are using the same amount of money today each month that we were using in 2020... so, from a financial standpoint, I do not feel any financial pain. However, there are other people who have claimed that they are in a great deal of financial pain since Biden took office... and, there are retired people who have stated they have had to get a part time job.
I am sure they are telling the truth, but you don't know the specifics of their lifestyle and there might have been areas that they could have cut back...
In other words, I know that prices have increased but that increase has cause no burdens on us and we are spending overall what we used to spend and we are saving overall what we used to save.
I am against the Democrats because I don't support the green energy movement and believe our economy would be better off if we drilled for all the oil we could find.
I am also against illegal immigration.
I am also against our high and increasing National Debt
So, my point is this.... we are worse off today than in 2020 but not everyone feels the pain...
Supercomputer that Simulates Entire Human Brain
A neuromorphic supercomputer called DeepSouth will be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, which is on par with the estimated number of operations in the human brain
A supercomputer capable of simulating, at full scale, the synapses of a human brain is set to boot up in Australia next year, in the hopes of understanding how our brains process massive amounts of information while consuming relatively little power. READ MORE...
Thursday, December 14
Learning From One's Past
Do we look back 20 years, I am now learning this from my past... or do we learn as we age?
We are constantly living in the present, if you had not thought much about it and that present is always pushing us towards our future, so from one second to the next, we have created a past - present - and a future.
I pick up my coffee cup and spill it because I was not paying attention to picking up the cup. That action began in my present but immediately went into my past, as my present moved into the future.
So, I learned instantly.
I did not wait 20 years, look back and ask myself what did I learn from spilling my cup of coffee twenty years ago.
We can look at history and conclude that the actions taken 200 years ago were wrong... but can we actually apply that learning process to similar actions 200 years later, since much has changed? Obviously, we will make different decisions because of different circumstances and learned almost right away, if that was the right thing to do or not.
In other words, I don't think we actually learn that much from the past at all whether it is our past or someone else's past.
In the NEWS
The Israeli military has reportedly begun pumping seawater from the Mediterranean into a complex tunnel network underneath Gaza. The operation, likely to take weeks, is part of Israel's efforts to destroy the roughly 300-mile-long infrastructure used by Hamas to transport supplies and personnel (see overview). Some of the 140 remaining hostages from Hamas' Oct. 7 attack are believed to be held inside the tunnels. See more war updates here.
Sports Illustrated's parent company, The Arena Group, announced it has ousted CEO Ross Levinsohn, the latest in a string of firings allegedly related to the company's reported use of artificial intelligence to produce content on its website.
The news comes two weeks after tech and culture site Futurism reported the sports publication appeared to be publishing articles written by AI and using headshots from an AI marketplace—without disclosing it to their readers—with many of the articles filled with errors. After initially denying the report, The Arena Group said the articles were product reviews and licensed content from an external, third-party company. Listen to an interview with the journalist who broke the news here.
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the video game industry's largest convention in North America, shutting down after 28 years (More)
Andre Braugher, Emmy-winning actor known for roles in “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” dies at 61 (More) | Bulelwa "Zahara" Mkutukana, iconic multiplatinum-selling South African singer-songwriter, dies at 36 of reported liver problems (More)
Researchers demonstrate a hybrid biocomputer, made with lab-grown brain tissue connected to conventional electronic circuitry; potential applications include use in future AI-powered robotics (More)
Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-owned space flight company, to make its first launch since last September next week; uncrewed flight will carry scientific research payloads (More)
Harvard Corporation, the top governing body of Harvard, backs university President Claudine Gay following controversial congressional testimony on campus antisemitism (More) | See previous write-up (More)
New York Supreme Court orders state lawmakers to redraw New York's congressional map, finding the 2022 redistricting violated state law; analysts say decision may determine which party controls the US House after the 2024 election (More)
SOURCE: 1440 News
A Cosmology Mystery
Study by the Universities of Bonn and St. Andrews proposes a new possible explanation for the Hubble tension.
The universe is expanding. How fast it does so is described by the so-called Hubble-Lemaitre constant. But there is a dispute about how big this constant actually is: Different measurement methods provide contradictory values. This so-called “Hubble tension” poses a puzzle for cosmologists. Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and St. Andrews are now proposing a new solution: Using an alternative theory of gravity, the discrepancy in the measured values can be easily explained — the Hubble tension disappears. The study has now been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
Understanding the Universe’s Expansion
The expansion of the universe causes the galaxies to move away from each other. The speed at which they do this is proportional to the distance between them. For instance, if galaxy A is twice as far away from Earth as galaxy B, its distance from us also grows twice as fast. The US astronomer Edwin Hubble was one of the first to recognize this connection. READ MORE...
The universe is expanding. How fast it does so is described by the so-called Hubble-Lemaitre constant. But there is a dispute about how big this constant actually is: Different measurement methods provide contradictory values. This so-called “Hubble tension” poses a puzzle for cosmologists. Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and St. Andrews are now proposing a new solution: Using an alternative theory of gravity, the discrepancy in the measured values can be easily explained — the Hubble tension disappears. The study has now been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
Understanding the Universe’s Expansion
The expansion of the universe causes the galaxies to move away from each other. The speed at which they do this is proportional to the distance between them. For instance, if galaxy A is twice as far away from Earth as galaxy B, its distance from us also grows twice as fast. The US astronomer Edwin Hubble was one of the first to recognize this connection. READ MORE...
American Made Value Has Been Dead Since the !960s
I kept that car for over 30 years. Had the engine rebuilt at 200,000 miles, repainted in the original candy apple red pigment, a new top that glass in the back instead of plastic. I also replaced the seats and carpet.
This cost me about $2,500 and I paid $3,500 for the car so I had $6,000 invested in it. The car had over 350,000 miles on it when it was sold... maybe closer to 400,000 but I cannot be sure about that.
Before I sold it, I would take her out on the interstate and blow her out somewhere around 100-120 mph on a straight away. It felt good to be driving that kind of power.
Today's cars are not like the cars they manufactured in the 1960s. Not sure why that is because of all the advanced technology but once you hit 100,000 miles on a car, it is time to look for a new one. However, Toyota has a reputation of going 200,000 to 300,000 miles before it starts to have problems.
When you think about this longevity issue for a while, it begins to make sense. The consumer market is only so big... one would call it finite even with an increasing birthrate. So, the only way to continue that you can increase revenues year after year, is to make products that don't last long and need to be replaced.
This is not just true with vehicles but with appliances, hand tools, electronic equipment although this last one is replaced primarily because technology has improved and not because its components have worn out.
My parents kitchen appliances, washer and dryer, lasted over 30 years and were replaced not because they were not working but because my parents wanted the newer technology.
Living In a Computer Simulation
Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, planets and ultimately life to develop? The expansive force of the universe, dark energy, for example, is much weaker than theory suggests it should be – allowing matter to clump together rather than being ripped apart.
A common answer is that we live in an infinite multiverse of universes, so we shouldn’t be surprised that at least one universe has turned out as ours. But another is that our universe is a computer simulation, with someone (perhaps an advanced alien species) fine-tuning the conditions.
The latter option is supported by a branch of science called information physics, which suggests that space-time and matter are not fundamental phenomena. Instead, the physical reality is fundamentally made up of bits of information, from which our experience of space-time emerges. By comparison, temperature “emerges” from the collective movement of atoms. No single atom fundamentally has temperature. READ MORE...
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